Planning: Contents page update II

This is an updated photo of my contents page. I have added a few more stories, sorted out the borders and lined everything up. I also put a faded / translucent flying V guitar in the background because that specific guitar type is iconic in my rock genre. I have nearly finished it, I'm going to take another photo of myself to include and put it in the space that says image, and i also need to fill in the bottom right hand corner but I have not yet decided what to put there. All I need to do now is make the finishing touches to my contents page and re-write my double page spread.

Planning: Contents page update I

Today I started my contents page. (I've nearly finished my article and front cover) It was quite hard to start my contents page for I have no images for it yet and I plan to take some tomorrow night so I can put them onto my contents page on Thursday. I restarted it many times because i couldn't get that clean, crisp and smart look I was wanting and it often looked quite tacky. So i stopped putting boxes and shapes into it and kept it simple, a red, white and black colour scheme with a few lines to separate them and personally I think it is starting to look quite good. I hope to finish it by the end of the week / the end of Fridays lesson.

Planning: Front cover update IV

Today I carried on with my front cover, I was planning on finishing it today but as I looked over it again I noticed that a couple of things needed changed because a lot of the things on the cover started to look repetitive and crammed together. I noticed my main headline (for the double page spread) was smaller than the other headings which wasn't right, to when I made it bigger it didn't look right and everything was quite tight. So I got rid of the other big headings and replaced them with smaller ones which in the end turned out better because there was more space for everything to breathe and generally looked better. The small changes definitely make a difference. Im expecting to finish it by tomorrow. I also started my double page spread today and only have about 400 words left to do, I am planning to start my contents page on Monday also. And this weekend I am going to take some more photos, one for my secondary image on my front cover, some for the contents page and some for the double page spread.

Here is my cover so far:

Planning: Front cover update III

I've made a lot of progress on my front cover today, I started putting some articles and headings on the front cover to fill it up. I spent alot of time messing around with simple things like shapes and colours but it has been pretty effective. I've nearly finished it, I expect to be finished by tomorrow. I just need to take one more photo to put on the cover to fill out the big gap in the bottom left hand corner.

Planning: Front cover update II

I put my image on my front cover today, I also put the image into pixlr and altered the colours and made myself in the photo black and white on the coloured background. It looks very effective and helps portray the hard rock look I am going for. I'm still altering the masthead colours and I'm yet to start putting articles, headings and other features on the front cover for I am currently writing my article.

Planning: Edited Image (Front Cover 1)

This is the main image for the whole magazine for it is the main image on the front cover and basically sets out the vibe and theme for the whole magazine. I took it late at night behind some shops on-top of some old crates and boxes so the whole urban background really helped. Because the theme of my magazine is hard rock I had to make the main image represent that, and I believe I did. I was wearing a shirt, boots, ripped jeans and a leather jacket to try and get an authentic rock look and was also holding a fake cigarette also for that can be related to the hard rock style. Then I put the photo into Pixlr and made myself black and white, it links in with the article on the model and how he could be seen as an outcast. And the black and white also matches with my magazines colour scheme, and dark colours in general could be related to rock music.

Planning: Edited Images (Double page spread)

i 

I used Pixlr for this photo aswell, I wanted to get an old photograph style so I tried various different filters and borders until I found the perfect fit. I also edited around the two models, blurring some areas and altering the brightness and saturation.

Planning: Edited Images (Contents)

This was the photo that was taken from my contents page, I put it into Pixlr and played around with various different filters and effects to get the final product, shown above.

Planning: Original photos (Double Page Spread)

 This photo is featured in the double page spread of my magazine. This photo was taken a few months ago in a friends flat in Leeds. It is me (right) and my friend Thomas (left) in the photo. I was very happy with this photo because it looks like it had been edited or a filter has been added, when in-fact nothing has been done to this photo. We were standing over a floor light so the glare was caught in the photo which adds that light effect coming from the left hand side and also the light shining on our faces.

Planning: Original Photos (Front Cover 2)

This photo was taken before school at the bus stop early in the morning. It is featured on the front cover of my magazine, the alter ego for the model is called 'Underdog' which is stated on the front cover. I had my model smoking a cigarette because it matches with the hard rock theme of my magazine.

Planning: Original Photos (Contents Image)

This photo was taken in a bus stop at about 1 in the morning, and I believe it goes well with the hard rock style I am going for. Long hair, looking away from the camera facing the floor which could represent anger, dark clothes, and the bottle in my hand is a beer bottle filled with apple juice (Which I will explain in my evaluation). I was lucky on the night, it was foggy so that really enhanced the photo, and the street-light in the background also adds to the urban look.

Planning: Original photos (Front Cover)

I recently took some photo's for my magazine. I only took a couple for the cover but I still need to take some photos for the contents page and the double page spread. I am going to get a couple of friends to help me out by taking the photo's an featuring in them. I took some last night for the cover then narrowed them down to the one that I will eventually use on the actual cover, and in today's lesson I put the image on my cover and started messing around with the titles to see what color looks best. It was quite hard to find a good color for the masthead because it kept blending in with the background and every-time I found a bright enough color it looked un-professional. Also the quality of the photo was not great so I may consider re-taking it for it was taken on my phone.

Here is the photo I currently have on my cover, I may change it in the future with a better quality one. The theme of my magazine is hard rock so I tried to keep with the theme as much as i could, boots, ripped jeans, leather jacket, shirt and a cigarette. Also it is important to take mis en scene into consideration, everything else in the photo except from the person featured in it. I tried to take it in a rather urban, gritty place and I think taking it on the boxes and pallets was the best place I could find, also the night-time effect really helps make it look dark and gritty.

On our magazines, we have to have four of our own photos included. So I am planning on taking some more photos I'm also looking for other models to pose in photos.

Planning: Comparison to preliminary work. (SO FAR)

I want to show the difference between my preliminary cover and my current cover that I am still working on it but I am mainly looking at the masthead and how much cleaner and professional it is. As you can clearly see there is not too much on my new cover, but already it looks far better than the finished preliminary cover. Over the next few weeks and when I start taking my own photos it will really start to look professional and come into its own.

Current Cover

Preliminary Cover

Planning: Front Cover Update I

Today I looked at multiple different magazine covers to try and get some ideas for my own. Though I have not really added too much onto it and I am still only doing the mast-head / top section of the page it is really starting to look proffesional and something consumers and my target audience would want to buy. Even simple little things like shapes, lines and altering colours can make a really big difference. Magazines like 'Rolling Stone' have been a very big influence. I'm trying to throw the themes of Kerrang and Rolling Stone into a blender to get the best of both worlds. Smart and simple, but also with that dar, gritty, hard rock edge.

Planning: Masthead

Today I created my masthead for my magazine. This wont necessarily be the finished product but none the less it is a start.I created it in pages rather than 'indesign' because I believe it is more friendly and easier to use. But I may change my mind by the time I really start to put detail into it. It was simple stuff, I just put in my heading with my chosen font and started messing about with shapes to get a cool effect but not looking too tacky or un-professional. Next I am going to try to include some images on the masthead, for example put a faded guitar in the background.

Planning: Target Audience

Detailed target audience

My rock magazine will appeal to a very wide category of people from ages 16 to about 50. This is because the classic rock content can stretch back to the 70’s to modern day so there will be a wide range of people that the magazine will appeal to. And in this blog post I am going to create an ideal reader of the magazine to show who I am trying to market this product to.

Name: Darren

Age: 29

Race: White

Socio-demographic: C1

Gender: Male

This is Darren, he is 29 years old and enjoys classic rock music. Darren lives in a one bedroom flat in Sheffield with his dog Terry. He listens to rock bands like  KISS, Aerosmith and Motley Crue and has seen many classic rock acts like Def Leppard in their prime back in the 80’s so he has grown up from birth listening to this kind of classic rock music. This type of music also effects the way he dresses, leather jackets, ripped black skinny jeans and leather boots. Also when he was younger he had long black hair like the bands he idolized and still idolizes. He works a 9-5 job, working in a call centre and rock music is his escape from the boring reality of work. He has an AC-DC live photo pinned in his work cubicle and a Megadeth cd in his car stereo. Darren also likes to keep up with technology buying things like I-Pads, I-phones e.t.c. He is also a keen TV and movie fan and watches at least one movie a day when he gets home from work. His claim to fame is that he watched the entire breaking bad series in one day. Darren also enjoys fast food like McDonalds, Chinese and Burger King and has various empty food dishes from these restaurants lying around his flat. HE is very loud, outspoken and says what he thinks, this can often lead to fall-outs with friends or drunken fights in bars. He also enjoys socializing with his friends like going out for a drink, going to gigs or going bowling and playing snooker.

Planning: Magazine Moodboard

Planning: Magazine names + Fonts

Magazine names

• The Grind
• GR!T
• Pyromania

These are the three magazine names I have created, but I must narrow it down to one. The name I have chosen for my magazine is “The Grind”, I have chosen this because I believe it matches with the dark, gritty, hard rock theme I am going for.

Fonts for the masthead:

The grind 

Website: www.fontspace.com

Font: Caravel

The Grind

Website: www.fontspace.com

Font: Metamorphous

The Grind 

Website: www.fontspace.com

Font: Pure Evil II

All the fonts I have chosen have a gothic look about them with the arches and sharp edges. I have chosen these fonts because they match with the hard classic rock theme I am applying to my magazine. But I am yet to narrow it down to one font. Fonts are very important because they can really sum up what your magazine is about, many good fonts can cost about £5000 to use or download.

Research: Band image deconstruction (KISS)

Research: Band image deconstruciton (Motley Crue)

Research: In-design (first attempt)

This is my first attempt at using in-design. Obviously I will go through it thoroughly when I do it in my magazine but this was just the prelim and it's the first time I have used it so I was getting to grips with it. There is many things I must fix like the white gap next to the heading or the space between the text and the photo. I think that pages is far easier to use, but despite being more complicated in-design is much more worth it when you see the clean finished product.

Research: Magazine covers & Influences

In order to make sure my magazine is top quality and looks professional I have been getting Ideas from other music magazines like Kerrang, Classic rock, Metal hammer and many more. All of these magazines concentrate on near enough the same music, which happens to also be to same music genre as mine, classic rock music. The reason why I have chosen to look at so many different magazines is because i want to get as many ideas as I can in order to make my magazine the best it can be. For example Kerrang has a very hard rock look. The masthead is dark and has sharp, fuzzy writing. All of the headings on the front cover are messy and are slapped on across the page with different colours and fonts, it looks quite messy. And the same can be said for Metal Hammer, headings all across the front page, no real order of anything, lots of big bold font and the very metal looking artists on the cover. But this matches with the hard rock theme of the magazine. But with Classic Rock and Rolling Stone it is very different. It still deals with near enough the same kind of music, but the layout of the magazine is very very different. They tend to stick to one colour scheme on each issue and the font is more plain and simple with not as much going on, trying to keep it simple and clean.
I have blogged this because I wanted to explain my thought process behind this, I want to combine these different magazines into one. I want to have a hard rock themed cover but also at the same time I would like to keep it clean and simple. Below are some examples of the magazines I was talking about.

Kerrang

Rolling Stone

Metal Hammer

Classic Rock

Research: Kerrang magazine deconstruction

This is an issue of the rock magazine Kerrang from the early 90’s and it features Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx on the cover. The masthead of the magazine reads ‘KERRANG’ in big, bright, bold and fuzzy letters. It immediately catches your eye and it matches with the whole rock genre of the magazine. The main image is Nikki and he is bright green and seems to be shouting with his mouth wide open, this suggests he is loud, enthusiastic and outspoken. He has also been painted or digitally colored in green, this also catches our eye and makes us think why is he colored in green, his personality? Or just for effect? And on his jest reads ‘Vince’ with a large ban symbol over it, Vince is his former bandmate so we can infer from this sly dig at Vince that there is   some form of turmoil within the band and this will make us want to pick up the magazine and read the article. The magazine cover itself despite the main image is very eye catching and there are many things on here that jump out at you. The article heading, “WORLD EXCLUSIVE! MOTLEY CRUE! THE NAKED TRUTH!” sits next to the main image in bright white bold letters an jumps out at us, it seems very loud with all the exclamation marks and when I read it in my head it seems to shout. Also the heading “BLACKMORE GOES BONKERS” is clearly visible when you see the front cover due to its bold yellow writing, this appeals to us because of the word bonkers, we want to read on and find out what made him bonkers. And it is even more appealing because it is a celebrity or someone famous in the music business. The background of the front cover is red and red connotes anger, hate, rebellion and loud, so this matches with the rock theme of the magazine and goes well with the rebellious Nikki Sixx featured on the cover.

Research: Magazine genres

Rock Music:

Rock music has been popular for many years and still goes strong today, some may argue that though. But it it no doubt that rock magazines are still swept of shelves religiously each week. The most appealing thing about a rock magazine is all of the genre’s and sub genre’s, you can get so many different bands, cultures and content in a rock magazine due to its wide and varied content. But with my music magazine I would like to concentrate one a specific type of rock music, particularly 70’s and 80’s rock. This is because it makes it easier to create a target audience.

The target audience for my Rock magazine:

Age: 16-50

Race: White

Gender: Male + Female

Hobbies: Interested in music, uses social networking and electronic devices. (I-pad, I-phone, Laptops etc)

Pros:

• Lots of content to use.
• Can appeal to a wide range of people.

Cons:

• Restricted to a certain time in music.
• Many of these bands not around anymore.
• Could be recycled news due to bands retiring and getting old.

Pop music:

Pop music is like rock, in the sense that there are many different types of pop music. Many different artists could be classed as pop. Pop was originally big in 50’s America and it was an abbreviation for ‘popular music’ but like i said, it now has many sub genres like synth-pop, rock-pop and many more. This could be a good thing though because of how it can relate to many different sub genres and artists it may appeal to more people, but again you should try and stick to one genre / sub-genre so you can create a specific target market.

Pros:

• Pop still popular, limitless new news.
• Appeals to a wide audience.
• Many artists to choose from.

Cons:

• Target audience will be very limited e.g girls, teenage.
• Many other pop magazines being published.
• Tough, competitive market.

Research: Using Pixlr

Today I used pixlr for the first time. I plan on using it when creating my music magazine so I can alter and edit my photos, here is my first attempt. I have altered the saturation and brightness, but also made minor adjustments to the faces like darkening the lips and around the eyes to give it a dark vibe. The photo on the bottom was before pixlr and the photo on-top is after pixlr.

Prelim: Preliminary work, reasoning, explanation and evaluation.

For my preliminary work i created two pages for the school magazine. The front cover and the contents page. I used all of my own ideas and content. The images I used I took myself, I went around the school grounds inside and out taking them and I had permission to take photos of the content and people in the photos.

In order to create the magazine I conducted questionnaires and asked people what makes a good school magazine. We asked multiple teachers what content they would like inside, would they like the questions to be conducted by students, what colour scheme would they like and just general content. I also asked fellow students what they would like inside, after all they are the people who are most likely to read it along with parents. Also I'm trying to keep it readable for all ages, keep it smart and simple but still appealing. Obviously the quality of the photos and the work will be better in the real project, because this is just the preliminary work to show how much i have improved and what I have learned.

I believe that the preliminary work I have completed is a very good starting point to base my real work off and I am looking forward to expanding my ideas and using new software to create my school magazine.

Prelim: Contents page

Prelim: My Magazine cover

Prelim: Questionnaire

Questionnaire:

1)      What kind of colour scheme would you like?

A: Clear and consistent colours.

A: Nice bright colours

A: Stick with the school colours.

2)      What kind of articles would you like?

A: Something about reading, we are trying to get the pupils to read for pleasure. Also current affairs, not just CBA news, but news from Corby and everywhere else.

A: Student success stories.

A: The school senate, GCSE results.

3)      Would you rather have real writers, or students writing the columns and articles?

A: I think it would be good to have student articles, it gets them more involved and may get the other students to read it.

4)      Should the front cover be professional/ formal or informal to show its run by the students?

A: A more formal looking cover looks smarter and represents the school better, but you don’t want it to look so serious that it intimidates readers.

A: Yeah definitely student articles.

5)      What kind of images should be in it?

A:Images relating to the topic of the article or page, no celebrity photos, photos of students and the school.

6)      What general content should be included?

A: general student work, showing the good aspects of students work like art or a good story.

A: Student, a page to show and celebrate students good work.

7)      Informal or formal content?

A: A bit of both, maybe towards the back have a more informal section.

A: Formal, but not so much that you bore the students.

A: Formal, it’s a senior school. Not a primary school.

Prelim: My Magazine Preliminary

I believe it takes a number of things in order to make an appealing and successful school magazine. Firstly the cover should be smart, and in some way be promoting the school. For example if there are two students on the front their uniform should be exactly to the school code. Top buttons done up, ties by the top button, shirt tucked in and the real uniform. After all they are representing the school and you want to send off the positive message.

Also the cover as-well as the inside of the magazine should be bright, colourful and eye catching, but staying smart and simple at the same time. You don’t want a magazine that is black and white or very dull colours, you want one with vibrant, bright colours so it catches your eye and has a more positive look about it. And on the front cover should be relatable headlines that students or parents can relate too and will be interested in, for example the other magazines I have read have relatable articles and story headlines on the cover. For example “GCSE Stress” and “DECREASE your workload” so for students who read this, in this case GCSE students, they can relate to this and will want to pick up the magazine and read this article. Also the word decrease was in big capital red letters because it was the command word of the article and it was supposed to catch your eye, and it really works.

I also think it would be a good idea to have interviews in the magazine, with teachers and students. This is a good idea because people will read this and hear first-hand what the school like because they are the ones who experience it every day and I’m sure people would be interested to see what people really think of the school.

 Names for my school magazine:

·         CBA Today

·         CBA Piper

·         The Academy View

As-well as coming up with ideas for a name I also thought of some articles or features I would like to include in my magazine. Like I previously mentioned, I would like to include interviews with teachers and students, they are the people who experience life in the school first-hand every-day and it would be interesting to see what they have to say about the school. There would also be a lot of interesting questions to ask the head teacher, Mr Henrys. I would also like to have an achievements page, I believe the hard workers in the school who do not get the credit they deserve or the recognition should be featured on this page as role models to others, also it is a good promotion for the school for when people read it. This kind of ties in with the interview idea, but I would like to create a page were we ask students and teachers a specific question each week/month and get there answer and put it in the paper, like a question to do with the school or current affairs, something that has been in the news recently. And another thing I thought would be a good idea is to have a “Peoples page” where people good ask the magazine editors to put an post/article in the magazine for them, this page is for anyone in the school and it can include anything. A good piece of artwork, a good story, a joke or a problem they have within the school.

Prelim: Wilmo Weekly Magazine Deconstruction

This is the magazine for the Wilmo School. This cover looks very cheap and just thrown together in my opinion, but the way they have coloured the font is very smart. The subheadings and titles they have included on the cover are relatable for students, like “Maximise your concentration”, “Decrease your workload” and “3 easy steps to a healthier mind”, these are all problems that students have and this magazine would relate to their issues. Also they have coloured the headings with the command words in red because they want it to stand out. Like “MAXIMISE your concentration” is in capital, bright, bold, red letters because they want you to see it first and because it is urgent, and red represents importance and urgency. But the masthead seems very cheap to me and isn’t very clear, the black squiggles inside the font make it harder to read and there is just a general clash of colours throughout the whole cover. 

Prelim: CHS Magazine Deconstruction

This is the CHS magazine. As you can see it features a female student on the front so straight away we know it is aimed at students. It also features lots of bright colours which immediately catch your eye. Also there are many different sub-headings on the cover page which students can relate to, and this is why they have featured them on the front. For example the title “GCSE RESULTS: why we’re the best” is good because GCSE students can relate to it. “New to school?” is also relatable because many students will be worried about starting at school and they could relate to this and find sanctuary in others people’s views. And “Teenage stress” another relatable heading, teenagers who are stressing out and worrying can relate to this also. So the CHS school have tried to make this magazine as relatable as possible with all of the subheadings and also tried to make it eye catching and appealing with the bright colours and big bright, bold font.